JAIPUR: India captain Rohit Sharma on Wednesday admitted that the win against New Zealand in the first T20 International did not come easy in the end but said the players would learn from the experience.

The home team was cantering to a comfortable win but messed up the chase in the final four overs before Rishabh Pant took India past the target of 165.

“It didn’t come as easy as we expected, so great learning for the guys, to understand what needs to be done, not about power-hitting all the time,” he said at the post-match presentation.

“As a captain and a team, happy that those guys finished the game off. A good game for us, missing a few players, opportunity to other guys to show their ability.”

Rohit said at one stage it looked like New Zealand would score 180-plus but a “complete bowling performance” did not let it happen.

He also lavished praised on player-of-the match Suryakumar Yadav for his 40-ball 62.

“Sky (Suryakumar) is a very important player for us in the middle, plays spin well,” said Rohit who made 48 off 36 balls. On his dismissal off the bowling of Mumbai Indians team-mate Trent Boult, he said, “Trent Boult knows my weakness, I know his strength.

When I am captaining him I always tell him to bluff and that’s what he did.

“Happy with the win, first win, always nice.”

Suryakumar said he has not been doing anything different.

“I try to bat the same way in the nets and replicate the same in the game. I put a lot of pressure on myself in the nets, if I get out I go into the dressing room and think what better I could have done.”

He said the ball was coming on nicely to the bat but the pitch became a bit slow later on.

“I am happy to be on the winning side.”

On Boult dropping him, he said, “It’s my wife’s birthday, a perfect gift from him.”

Senior spinner Ravichandran Ashwin said slower balls have more purchase from the pitch.

“It’s tricky how much you toss it up, the windows for attacking are less (in T20s). Identifying the right pace took a bit of time for me,” he said.

“Important to see the game in isolation, 24 events (balls), the batsman is trying to play catch-up, so execute your plans.

“We thought it was par, par-minus, 170-175 was par, at the halfway mark we thought we would cruise home,” said Ashwin who took two wickets for 23 runs.

On Rahul Dravid taking charge for his first international match, Ashwin said, “Too early to comment, we need to give him some breathing space.

“He’s done the hard yards in Under-19 and A sides. Nothing to chance, about preparation, leaving nothing to chance, and bringing back the joy.

” New Zealand captain Tim Southee said his side started badly with the ball but recovered later to take the match to the last over.

“The way we started with the ball wasn’t what we wanted, did well to claw it back in the middle, took it deep and to the last over was a positive,” Southee said.

“You want to come out on the right side of close ones, Mark Chapman the way he played was very pleasing, but a game of fine margins.”

Southee admitted the sloppy fielding by his side.

“We set higher expectations so a bit off with the field, been very very good at it in the last few matches.

“Tough that we’d used our resources, but Daryl does his scouting and always wants to bowl. We probably didn’t leave him enough runs.”

CHENNAI: Geeta Phogat last took the mat for a competitive wrestling bout in 2018. Back then, she finished third at the Yasar Dogu international event in Istanbul, Turkey. A lot has changed since then with India’s first Commonwealth Games gold medallist giving birth to a baby boy in December 2019.

“I was around 93-94kg after I gave birth to my child. But keeping away from the sport you love is difficult. Even when I was pregnant, I was thinking about a comeback because wrestling gives me satisfaction which nothing can give,” Geeta, who will compete in 59kg, told this daily.

It all began with losing the excessive weight and getting back to her best shape. “Stamina and speed play a vital role in contact sports like wrestling. Stamina was never an issue for me because of the hard work I did in childhood but getting back the speed was not easy. Executing wrestling moves with speed was the toughest thing,” added the Dangal girl.

The wrestler, whose last stint in the nationals came in 2017, produced some of her best results in 55kg — 2010 CWG gold and 2012 Worlds bronze but she chose 59kg weight category to make a comeback. “It’s been more than three years so I thought 59kg would be appropriate. The 2024 Paris Olympics is the ultimate goal so I would switch to 57kg, which is an Olympic division. I cannot compete in 62kg as my sister Sangeeta (Bajrang Punia’s wife) is competing there. I know the 57kg is a competitive category with Worlds medallists Anshu Malik and Sarita Mor there but I would love to compete against these good young wrestlers. The aim is to start representing the country again,” said Geeta, who will take the mat on Friday.

The top-two finishers from each weight category in the nationals will get a chance to represent India in the Commonwealth Wrestling Championships scheduled in Pretoria, South Africa from December 3 to 5.

Besides Geeta, the nationals will also witness participation from wrestlers like Sakshi Malik (62kg), Narsingh Yadav (74kg) and Rahul Aware (61kg). However, the wrestlers who represented the country in the Tokyo Olympics will be conspicuous by their absence. Sonam Malik (62kg) underwent elbow surgery and recovering from it. Similarly, Vinesh Phogat (53kg) and Anshu are also recovering from their respective injuries. In the men’s event, Tokyo Games medallists — Bajrang (65kg) and Ravi Dahiya (57kg) — will be missing from action along with Deepak Punia (86kg).

Abu Dhabi, Nov 3: A formidable India led by their stylish openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul finally put up a near-flawless performance to annihilate a hapless Afghanistan by 66 runs to stay afloat in the ICC T20 World Cup here on Wednesday.

It could well be a case of joining the party two games too late but a solid batting show to first score 210 for 2 and then bowl the disciplined lines to restrict Afghanistan to 144 for 7 kept their billion plus fans interested.

With their net run-rate finally entering the positive bracket (+0.073), India would now hope that Afghanistan can recover from this drubbing and upset New Zealand, giving Virat Kohli’s men an outside chance to qualify for the semi-finals behind Pakistan who are set to top the group.

On the day, India did everything that perhaps was expected of them against the big teams.

Rohit brought his carefree elegance to the table while Rahul was classy as ever in India’s imposing total.

While they would still have to bear the criticism of having flattered to deceive against Pakistan and New Zealand, Rohit (74 off 47 balls) and KL Rahul (69 off 48 balls) made a mockery of Afghanistan’s inexperienced attack, putting up a record 140 runs for the opening stand.

This was also the highest total in this edition of T20 World Cup but one can only hope that it hasn’t come two matches too late.

It couldn’t be denied that save Rashid Khan, who was taken to task by Rohit in his third over, the other Afghans were pedestrian at best, leaving Hardik Pandya (35 no off 13 balls) and Rishabh Pant (27 no off 13 balls) to feast during the death overs.

The Pandya-Pant duo clobbered 63 runs in 3.3 overs to take the total which was always going to be beyond Afghanistan’s reach.

When India bowled, Ravichandran Ashwin, playing his first international game in six months and white ball international after four years, was too good for the Afghans with figures of 2 for 12 in four overs that also had 12 dots.

Jasprit Bumrah (1/25 in 4 overs) was steady as usual while Ravindra Jadeja (1/19 in 3 overs) looked decent. Mohammed Shami (3/32 in 4 overs) got a bit of stick but picked wickets at regular intervals.

With no disrespect to India’s efforts, the gulf in bowling standards was evident in the disdainful manner that Rohit and Rahul treated the Afghan attack. Hardik and Pant then added insult to the injury.

The mid-130s speed of the pacers and lack of swing with not much pace off the track was an ideal recipe for disaster against the two Indian openers, who were smarting after back-to-back failures.

On a track where the ball was gripping, Afghanistan captain Mohammed Nabi started with his off-breaks and introduced left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf from the other end.

For the two Indian openers, who needed a few big shots to get into the groove, there couldn’t have been a more mouth-watering option as Rohit was the first one off the block with an inside-out lofted boundary over extra-cover off Nabi and a lap-shot off Sharafuddin.

When pacer Naveen ul Haq was introduced, Rohit opened his stance to slash the bowler past point and a straight six while Rahul also got his share of boundaries.

The 50 of the innings came in five overs but it was veteran pacer Hamid Hasan, who bowled the last over of the Powerplay to put a brief brake on scoring during that phase after the fielding restrictions were lifted.

However, the good start meant that 85 came off the first 10 overs with both openers looking solid for acceleration towards the back-10.

One of the better boundaries from Rohit was the one which he guided a Gulbadin Naib delivery towards third-man fence, using the bounce to inch towards his half-century.

The 23rd T20 International fifty came when he square-cut an off-colour Naveen to the boundary and Rahul followed suit with a six over square leg off the same bowler and then lofting Gulbadin over extra cover to reach the milestone.

By the time Rashid (0/36 in 4 overs) came for his final spell, Rohit and Rahul were competing to out-score each other.

Rohit saved his best for Rashid when he lofted the spinner towards deep mid-wicket even when he hadn’t reached to the pitch of the delivery but the bat-swing did it for him. The next was picture perfect as it was sent soaring into grass banks.

By the time Rohit was out trying to smash Karim Janat over extra cover, he had got eight fours and three sixes.

Rahul was also dismissed within another seven runs, being cleaned up by Gulbadin as he tried to shuffle towards off-stump but by then a solid platform for victory was already laid.

Dubai: Pakistan on Sunday won by 10 wickets over India at the Dubai International Stadium here in UAE in the first match of its campaign in ICC T20 WC 2021.

Chasing a target of 151 runs, Pakistan chased the target with 12 balls to spare.

Batting first, India had set a target of 151, after skipper Virat Kohli scored a half-century and Rishabh Pant scored 39.

Skipper Babar Azam stroked his way to 68 while his opening partner, Mohammad Rizwan, smashed 79 as the Indian bowlers struggled to contain the two batters.

Earlier, captain Virat Kohli led from the front with a half-century as India recovered from a disastrous start to post a challenging total.

Besides Kohli’s 49-ball 57, Rishabh Pant slammed 39 in 30 deliveries.

Sent into bat after the coin landed in favour of Pakistan skipper Babar Azam at the toss, India were off to the worst possible start as they lost both their prolific openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul within three overs with just six runs on the board.

Doing most of the initial damage was the lanky left-arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi (3/31 in 4 overs), who had Rohit trapped in front of the wicket for a duck and then bowled Rahul after the batsman had run three singes.

Kohli and Pant then joined forces to add 53 runs in quick time before the latter was caught out by leg-spinner Shadab Khan (1/22 in four overs) off his own bowling in the 13th over.

Brief scores:

India: 151/7 in 20 overs (Virat Kohli 57, Rishabh Pant 39; Shaheen Afridi 3/31) vs Pakistan.

Pakistan: 152 for no loss in 17.5 overs (Babar Azam 68 not out, Mohammad Rizwan 79 not out).